Saturday, 9 June 2012

Well, I finally completed the pack!! YEAH!!!!! What a job that was. Many hours has gone into this pack, so I hope to get some positive feedback about it!

I love using the Magic School Bus as a resource when teaching units such as the human body, space, insects, machines etc. And most children love watching the episodes. So I've done the hard work for you, and created a questionnaire for each episode on the following DVDs:

Exploring space;

Body basics;

Gets eaten for lunch;

Meets the rot squad;

Wonders of weather;

Exciting environments;

Amazing machines;

Ups and downs;

Blows it top;

Discovering bugs;

Dinosaurs and reptiles; and

Creepy, crawly fun!

You can pick up copies of these DVDs at the Scholastic Store and I can promise they will be an invaluable resource! Check out the pack at my stores! If you have any feedback, please feel free to drop me a line! :-)

Thursday, 7 June 2012

It has been said that "the first two years of formal schooling are critical in children's literacy development". This is where they really get a grasp on language, and learn that words are made up of sounds and that these sounds are represented by letters.

Generally in Australia, teachers use the Carnine Order for teaching the alphabet:

Why do we do it in this order? Because the letters are visually and auditorily similar are seperated so there is no confusion; upper case letters that do not look the same as their lower case letters are introduced after most lower case letters have been introduced; and more useful and frequently used litters are introduced before less useful letters (Carnine, et al., 2006).

So based on checklists from the textbook "Teaching Children with Reading Difficulties", I have created some printable checklists that you can do at the beginning, and throughout the year to record your students knowledge of letters and sounds. There will also be checklists for important letter combinations, such as consonant diagraphs, double consonant diagraphs, initial consonant blends and silent letters. So check out my store to download your pack of letter sound checklists today!

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

It's that time of year again - meeting with the parents of the students in your class! 99% of them will be lovely and have good knowledge of how their child is going - but there are some who have blinkers on and think their child is... well... let's just say better than what we know them to be!

As a young teacher I can remember getting ready for my first parent-teacher interviews. It is a daunting time, but while at one school I was lucky to have the support of my fellow teachers. They shared the following sheet with me, which gives teachers a guide as to what to specifically discuss with parents.

It is important to remember that you should always begin with positives, but also provide information about what the child needs to work on. It may be hard, as you generally only have a set amount of time with each family, so this sheet will make sure that you stay on target with what you intended to say. It should also reflect what will be stated in the student's report. Check out my stores for your free download!